The Batlord

Most new-age thrash bands are ****, but some of the old school eighties bands are surprisingly great today. They generally don't feel the need to sound exactly like they did back in the day, or they at least update their production and brutality to keep themselves competitive with modern metal bands. Some of the best metal made in the last decade and a half has been made by such bands (and some not so great metal unfortunately).

So, I'm doing a poll to see who the best are. It's multiple choice, so you can vote for as many bands as you want. Only rule for voting is that only modern albums count. If you love Bonded By Blood, but can't stand any of Exodus' newer albums, then don't vote for them. This is about modern ****.

The cutoff for a band to be considered old school is they have to have formed roughly before 91-92, around the time that grunge "killed" thrash. The album date cutoff is 1999, since that is the earliest year I see for reformed bands releasing albums (Artillery's B.A.C.K., and Agent Steel's Omega Conspiracy). They also have to have released at least one legitimate thrash album since 1999 (so, Blind Illusion and Jag Panzer don't count). So, if they had not released Death Magnetic, Metallica would not count. Post-thrash counts, so long as it's "close enough".

Some other basic rules on a band's inclusion. Reformed bands, like Exodus and Death Angel, are acceptable, as are bands that never broke up and are still going strong, like Kreator and Overkill, and likewise bands who may have gone on temporary hiatus but never actively broke up, like Testament. And bands that had a reunion/stayed together but broke up again or have been inactive for long enough that it is assumed that they are done, are acceptable, so long as they released at least one studio album of new material (live albums, compilations, and splits don't count, nor do reunions strictly for touring, like Vio-Lence).

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